Afghanistan has to be free from malign influences: India on Pakistan

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Describing the atrocities being committed by the Taliban in their advance across Afghanistan as “deeply troubling”, visiting US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken said Wednesday that this doesn’t speak well of Taliban “intentions” and “taking over power by force” can’t be a path to international recognition.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who was listening when Blinken made these remarks, spelt out India’s redlines: that the result in Afghanistan shouldn’t be “decided by force on the battlefield”; that there’s “broad and deep consensus” on a negotiation that results in peace and cessation of violence; which there should be a political settlement.

Jaishankar said the independence and sovereignty of Afghanistan can only be ensured “if it’s free from malign influences” — a regard to Pakistan’s involvement.

“Regarding Afghanistan, it’s essential that peace negotiations are taken seriously by all parties. the planet wishes to ascertain an independent, sovereign, democratic and stable Afghanistan asleep with itself and with its neighbours but its independence and sovereignty will only be ensured if it’s free from malign influences. Similarly, unilateral imposition of will by any party will obviously not be democratic and may never cause stability nor indeed can such efforts ever acquire legitimacy,” he said.

“The gains to Afghan civil society especially on the rights of girls , minorities and on social freedoms over the last 20 years are self-evident; we must collectively work to preserve them. Afghanistan must neither be home to terrorism nor resource of refugees,” he said.

Echoing Jaishankar, Blinken said: “An Afghanistan that doesn’t respect the rights of its people, an Afghanistan that commits atrocities against its own people, would become a pariah state… There’s just one path, and that’s at the negotiating table to resolve the conflict peacefully.”

Underlining that their meeting was happening at an “important juncture when key global and regional challenges got to be effectively addressed”, Jaishankar made India’s discomfiture with the US decision to withdraw from Afghanistan amply clear.

“It is natural, inevitable, that if the us , which for the last 20 years, had a strong military presence in Afghanistan withdraws that presence, there’ll be consequences. Now, the difficulty isn’t whether that’s good or bad. what’s done is completed . it’s a policy taken and, I think, in diplomacy you affect what you’ve got ,” he said.

“Both Secretary and that i made it very clear that we don’t think the result should be decided by force on the battlefield. we expect the peace negotiations should be a negotiation and will cause peace. It should see cessation of violence, there should be a political settlement,” he said.

“Now, I grant you, nobody who agrees, does what they assert they’re going to do. I noted the exception that you simply have acknowledged . But i feel that’s a reality which isn’t new. that’s a reality over the last 20 years,” Jaishankar said, responding to an issue on whether Pakistan is doing enough.

Blinken agreed: “We are both committed to the proposition that there’s no military solution to the conflict that afflicts Afghanistan. There has got to be a peaceful resolution which needs the Taliban and therefore the Afghan government to return to the table, and that we both agree, i feel strongly, that any future government in Afghanistan has got to be inclusive and fully representative of the Afghan people.”

In this context, he said both India and therefore the US are “in alignment”. He said although the US is withdrawing its troops, it remains “very much engaged” on economic, development and military assistance to the Afghan national security forces.